


In More Ways Than One

by Moncube



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blowjobs, Dragneto, Gay Mutant Road Trip, Kissing, M/M, Masturbation, Telepathy, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-05
Updated: 2015-07-21
Packaged: 2018-04-07 19:39:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4275498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moncube/pseuds/Moncube
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A look at what could have happened in XMFC if Erik was a transgender man.<br/>There's lots of miscommunication, then proper communication, and of course smut.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Hunter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ramenluvwithu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ramenluvwithu/gifts).



> This work should update pretty quickly, as I have a lot of it already written out. It should be up in the next few days or so. Also it would be relatively short, maybe about 7-8 chapters or around 5000 words.
> 
> Characters and the E rating refer to later chapters.
> 
> Many thanks to ramenluvwithu, who encouraged me and let me bounce ideas off them. :)
> 
> "Sharing is Caring" takes place in the same 'verse as this. (A short PWP)  
> (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4020829)

**Erik  
**

Erik always travels as light as he can. That means that almost anything can be easily replaced by buying or stealing from somewhere nearby. The only exception to that is his stash of testosterone, which he monitors closely and brings way more than he thinks he will need for the next three months. This habit of his has kept him sane even from dry periods in between towns, and in times where he was too busy doing stakeouts or pursuing his next victim that could possibly lead him to Shaw.

Over the years he has gotten better at locating people who dealt testosterone, or just buying or stealing it from hospitals or wherever he can get it, but he still gets a little antsy when he’s down to his last bottle, which would last him only a few weeks.

* * *

Dependencies. It was all about reducing dependencies. Erik used to carry around an injection kit to administer his shot each week, but after too many experiences where he accidentally broke, dropped or lost it he eventually came up with a way to administer it without the need for a glass syringe.

* * *

At the end of the day, Erik takes off his trousers and sits at the edge of the bed. He pulls out the small tin of testosterone and removes the cap, then shapes it with his power into a syringe entirely made out of metal. Without the clear glass of a normal syringe he is unable to check the precise measurements, and he measures the levels of the liquid from the container instead.

The injection itself is quick and relatively painless, and Erik exhales with a sigh of relief as the makeshift needle glides out of his skin and is shaped back into a cap. It’s a tricky and tedious process, but it only needs to happen once a week, for which he is grateful. 

* * *

He knows that Shaw would not be expecting him. As he pulls himself onto Shaw’s yacht and moves along stealthily, he wonders what Shaw’s reaction would be after so many years of not seeing him. Would Shaw even put the pieces together? After all, a big part of exacting revenge is seeing the faces of his tormentors twist in horror as they realize that the person they tortured back in the camps has returned to deal out a similar fate to them.

However, he didn’t expect Shaw to be so prepared. As he rounds a corner he suddenly comes face to face with Shaw and his subordinates, already poised for a fight. He only has a moment to see Shaw’s face harden before Emma Frost is in his mind, causing a splitting headache and forcing his knees to the floor of the yacht.

“Get this man off my boat.”

A man with red skin and the face of the devil leaps forward, tail poised for a deadly strike, when Emma stops him.

“Wait. He’s from the camps. Let me handle this.”

The devil disappears in a puff of smoke, and Shaw’s face shifts from nonchalance to contemplation and finally to amused recognition.

“Ah! I wouldn’t have guessed it. But then again I shouldn’t be surprised. Little Erika was always so full of surprises.”

He can feel Emma flipping through his memories of being experimented on at the camps, deliberately making him relive those memories which hurt and scared him the most.

That’s when he feels a strong gust of wind crash into him, sending him reeling off the side of the boat and into the water.

The shock of freezing water jolts him out of the illusion of his memories in the camps, and as he tries to swim back, and his mind races, thinking of how to get back on the boat and somehow take down Shaw. It’s so near yet so far, and  since now Shaw knows that he is here and that he is after him, it’s going to be so much harder to kill him.

He’s failed, and now he’s lost the element of surprise. His best hope of taking down Shaw, now gone up in a blaze. Now with the name and face of his pursuer, Shaw is able to send people to take down Erik, and Erik may very shortly find himself becoming the hunted instead of the hunter.

As he senses a large hulk of metal detach itself from the yacht and start to propel itself away,, the only thought in his mind is that he can’t let Shaw get away. He can’t. Or there may never be a next time.

Using his power, he hangs on to the submarine and tries to pull with all his might. It drags him further and further under but all he can think of is to keep holding on.

And that's when he feels someone diving in behind him, wrapping strong arms around him and a voice in his head telling him to **LET IT GO.**


	2. Miscommunications

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Charles finds out. And Erik realizes that proper communication is just as important with telepaths as it is for anyone else.

**Erik**

_“What do you know about me?"_

_“Everything.”_

_“Then you know to stay out of my head.”_

 

So. Charles knows everything there is to know about Erik. He probably would have known everything since the moment he pulled Erik out of the water. He gleaned his name from his mind, and what he was after, so it wasn’t that much of a stretch to assume that he could access any bit of information from Erik’s mind if he so wanted to.

With telepaths there is no such thing as privacy, and Erik feels a surge of wanting to pin Charles down and make him swear to secrecy about his deepest darkest secret. In fact, Charles is probably listening on him right now, so Erik projects that last thought as loud as he can, and sure enough, Charles winces and fixes his very blue gaze on Erik, saying “You have my word, Erik. I won’t tell anyone.”

It’s the utter conviction in those words that finally convinces Erik that he can trust Charles, and he decides to stay.

* * *

In these few weeks that they've spent on their road trip to look for more of their kind, they’ve fallen into a routine. At the end of the day when they’re back in their room for the night, Charles takes the first shower while Erik undresses and reviews the plans for the next day.  
  
And on Fridays, while Charles is in the shower, Erik pulls out his tin of testosterone and administers his weekly shot, before continuing on with his normal nightly routine.  


* * *

**Charles**

  
In the few months that they spend on road trips connecting with mutants, Charles notices things about Erik. He notices the way he perks up when there is a hospital nearby, like he’s drafting a contingency plan should things go south.  
  
He also notices a pattern in Erik’s moods. Every few weeks or so, he starts to get more and more agitated, especially so if they are passing through a stretch of small towns. Sometimes it feels like his irritation fills the car, making it hard for Charles to relax or think about anything else other than Erik’s very palpable restlessness.  
  
And there are times when his agitation builds and when Charles thinks he can’t ignore it any longer, suddenly Erik decides to take off for a day without any explanation whatsoever, and when he returns his foul mood is completely gone, as if it was never there in the first place.  
  
It’s strange, but it practically follows a pattern like clockwork, and there’s never a good time to probe Erik on his strange mood, and so Charles leaves it be.  


* * *

  **Erik**

  
Today is a Friday again, and as Charles heads to the shower, Erik takes out his testosterone, already pulling off the metal cap to reshape it into a syringe. He sits on the bed in just his undershirt and boxers, and he’s almost done loading it and getting ready to inject himself when he hears the door open and Charles stepping out again.  
  
“Ah, almost forgot my boxers.” Charles mutters to himself as he walks to his suitcase.  
  
And that’s when he catches sight of the syringe in Erik’s hand, needle pointed at his thigh just short of grazing it.  
  
“Erik. What are you doing?”  
  
“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m giving myself an injection.” He says it like it’s the most normal thing in the world and that Charles is the odd one for making a big deal out of it all.  
  
“Why would you need to give yourself an injection?” Charles eyes the needle warily, knowing at a glance that it was shaped and reshaped out of Erik’s powers every time it needed to be used.  
  
“Don’t you know? You said you knew everything there is to know about me.”  
  
Charles pinches the bridge of his nose in frustration.  
“I meant everything about your quest for revenge! Do you really think I have the time to examine every moment of memory and thought in every person’s life?”  
  
Erik considers this for a moment and realizes that all these past weeks he had been operating under a false assumption--that Charles knew that he was transgender--when that was not the case. He puts the syringe down on the bedside drawer.  
  
“So you didn’t know. What about now? Are you searching through my mind for the answers now?”  
  
“Erik, no! I’m not going to dig through your mind without permission! I only pick up very strong thoughts like those you had when you were tracking down Shaw!”  
  
Erik mentally cursed himself for not being more careful. Now he had to explain to Charles about why he was holding a syringe in his hand, and the truth would have to be revealed anyway.  
  
He puts it as simply as he can. “This is testosterone. I inject myself with it once a week.”  


* * *

  **Charles**

“Why... would you need to inject yourself with testosterone?”  
  
Erik levels him another look, along with raised eyebrows and a tilt of his head, somehow expecting Charles to already know the answer.  
  
Charles resists the temptation to rub his temple, realizing that once again, people always seemed to expect him to know the answer to everything due to his telepathy. The only way around that was just patience, and communication.  
  
He paces around the room, gesturing wildly with his hands, his search for his boxers already forgotten.  
  
“No, I don’t know why. Maybe you’re doing it because you need an extra boost to keep you going, or that you want to get stronger, or maybe your body isn’t producing enough of it - but I think that’s very unlikely seeing it’s quite a rare condition - and where have you been getting this from and do you even know what are the effects of testosterone overdose are- ”  
  
And suddenly he stops, realizing belatedly that he’s been babbling, mind and tongue racing faster and faster out of confusion, and he turns to Erik.  
  
“I’m sorry for blurting all of that out. I’m just, shocked. Is all.”  
  
He goes to sit down on the bed, puts his head in his hands, and takes a few calming breaths.  
  
“Okay, I have no idea what you are doing, and as we’ve established, I’m not going to snoop around your mind for the answers. So I’d appreciate it if you’d just tell me what’s going on.”  
  
Beside him, he feels the mattress shift as Erik gets up to place the metal syringe on the bedside table. A moment later the mattress dips again, and he feels Erik’s warm palm rubbing between his shoulder blades.  
  
“I’m sorry. It’s just not easy to talk about these things.” Erik says gently, continuing the steady rhythm of kneading the tired muscles at the base of Charles’ neck.  
“Also, I forgot that there are other reasons for taking testosterone other than, well, my condition.” He sighs, bracing himself for Charles’ reaction. “Charles, I’m a transgender man.”  
  
Charles whips his head up, shock ringing through his mind. He never would have guessed - it just didn’t occur to him to even consider that possibility.  
  
“Oh. Um..." He pauses to clear his throat, buying time to think of an appropriate response. "Uh, you pass very well for a man?”.  
“Thanks.” Erik gives him a smirk. “You’re taking this better than most people.”  
  
Charles let out another nervous laugh, and finally topples back to lie flat on Erik’s bed, trying to wrap his head around this new information.  
  
“So that's what it was all about?” He blurted, projecting his recollection of Erik’s agitation and bad moods in the previous weeks. “You were worried that I’d reject you if I knew the truth?”  
  
“Well, no.” Erik suddenly looked sheepish. “If my testosterone supply runs too low, I start to get paranoid.”  
  
“Oh, Erik.”  
  
And they don’t say anything for a long while after that, with Charles too drained from the tension and his headache. Erik ends up taking the first shower instead, letting Charles use his bed to rest for a bit.

* * *

**Charles**

“So... why do you only inject yourself with it when I’m in the shower?”  
  
Erik shrugs. “It’s no big deal, and it’s not pretty. Anyway I figured I’d concentrate better if it was just me in the room.”  
  
“Oh.” Charles’ gaze turns to the spot on Erik’s thigh where he injected, a tiny bit of blood oozing out from it. “Does it hurt?”  
  
“Not so much, once you get used to it.”  
  
Charles moves his hand to touch Erik’s thigh, slowly enough that Erik could stop him or move away if he wanted to. When his hand makes contact with Erik’s thigh, he starts to rub gentle circles on it, and he remembers what it felt like having Erik’s hand on his back less than an hour ago.  
  
Erik exhales softly.  
  
“Good?” he asks, and when Erik nods he goes up to get some lotion to make it easier for him to massage his thigh. Erik’s thighs are nicely muscled and warm, if a little too tightly wound, and Charles does what he can to ease the tension in them. It’s nice to feel the heat of Erik’s body when he’s this close, and he finds himself locking gazes with Erik, and it’s an incredibly intimate experience, even if he’s only giving him a thigh massage.  
  
Breaking eye contact, Charles stands up again, wiping his hands against his pants. “Er, I hope you feel... better?” he says with an awkward smile.  
  
"Yes. Thank you, Charles." Erik grins.  
  
Charles climbs into his bed and pulls the covers over himself. “Goodnight, Erik.”  
  
“Goodnight, Charles.”

 


	3. Downtime

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flashback to a few years ago when Erik finally managed to get his top surgery done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a really short chapter, but I felt that I had to write it.

At first he thought it was an impossible task, but he manages to secure a doctor to get his surgery done. He will be out for almost two months, more vulnerable to surprise attacks and also unable to travel or track down leads, but in the long run it would be to his advantage that he has a large weight off his mind.  
  
As he enters the doctors office, Nazi gold already packed and counted in his briefcase, he feels a surge of paranoia. With the anesthesia, he would be out and totally helpless. Erik has always been a light sleeper, and these few hours would be when he is truly at his most vulnerable. Once he regains consciousness and heads back to his base to recover, he has his mutation to help him easily fend off potential attackers.  
  
He runs through the agreement with the surgeon in his head. Fifty percent of the payment--all in solid gold -- before, and fifty percent after. All details about the surgery and anything to do with Erik is to be kept strictly confidential or there will be hell to pay.  
  
Thus relaxed, he gets on the table, and allows the doctor to put on the inhalant mask. He drifts off into a sound sleep, knowing that when he wakes up, he would have a flat chest like he wanted for years.  



	4. Meeting Angel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charles and Erik meet Angel at the nightclub. Drunk (and horny) shenanigans ensue.

They're in a bar with a girl, the mutant that they found through Cerebro when they were at the CIA base. Charles’ powers, enhanced by Cerebro, can tell if someone is a mutant, as well as their location and coordinates, but not much else. That’s why they have to go in person to find out exactly what their abilities are.  
  
"You show us yours, and we'll show you ours." That's what Erik had said earlier, and given their current context, it was unsurprising that Angel misunderstood their intent.  
  
Angel laughs it off. “That’s not how it works around here, daddy-o.”  
  
With a snap of his fingers for show, Erik levitates the champagne—in a metal bucket filled with ice-- over to Charles and grins.  
  
"More tea, vicar?"  
  
"I don't mind if I do." The alcohol here is of the best quality, and it's amusing to think that he can still chalk it up in the CIA bill as part of the expenses in the road trip, and Charles merrily helps himself to more.  
  
Leaning back against the headboard, Charles puts his fingers to his temple, and projects the image of Erik wearing a blue dress and a red wig to both Erik and her. It takes him a moment before his rational mind catches up and he starts to worry if he had accidentally offended Erik, but Erik laughs and takes it in stride, slapping Charles heartily on the thigh and appreciating the irony of it all.  
   
Charles smiles back at him. "You've never looked more beautiful, darling."

* * *

  
It turns out that Angel is a girl with the most amazing mutation. It's hidden in plain sight in the form of tattoos on her skin, only to be unfolded into actual wings when she wills it to.  
  
As Charles sips his champagne in the nightclub, he marvels once again at the diversity of mutation, of nature, of the way humans have evolved.  
  
After that, things go pretty smoothly. Angel agrees to meet them tomorrow to go back with them to the CIA base, but for now she has to go see other clients and attend to her bar duties.  
  
“Now, since you boys have booked the room for the next hour, I’ll just leave you be.” She says with a wink before disappearing behind the curtains.  
  
Suddenly Charles and Erik are in a room by themselves.  
  
And Charles is drunk and giggly and he presses a soft kiss to Erik’s cheek, and Erik feels his face heat up. He kisses Charles back on the lips deeply, and when they part, they’re flushed and panting.  
  
_Let’s go. If we continue we won’t be able to stop._ Charles’ mental voice floats into Erik’s head.  
  
They quickly flag a taxi back to their motel, and the moment that they are behind closed doors, Erik crowds Charles up against the door and presses sloppy kisses all over his face and neck. Charles moans and arches up against Erik, and slides his thighs in between Erik’s legs.  
The friction is glorious and for the next few minutes they do nothing but moan and grind against each other.  
  
After a while, Erik stops kissing Charles so that he can pull his turtleneck off, and for a moment Charles takes in the sight of his chest. He tells Erik that it looks wonderful, before taking off his own shirt as well, and getting back to pressing their bodies together. Erik grinds himself against Charles, knowing and not caring that Charles can feel the lack of a bulge in his pants. It’s refreshing to be honest about such things, and it’s still delicious as they make out and rut against each other for a while with their pants still on.  
  
Finally Erik pulls back, and tells Charles that he is going for a shower. Charles smirks and raises an eyebrow knowingly, eyes glinting with mischief as Erik grabs his clothes and heads for the bathroom.  
  
Erik doesn’t bother to be quiet as he beats off. As he turns on the shower and feels the hot spray of water pouring over him, he starts to rub his cock, already hard and erect from just kissing and touching Charles a few moments ago. With his other hand he circles his nipples and gives it a pinch, imagining that it's Charles nipping at his chest, teasing him and making his way down to his cock. His imagination then takes it one step further, presenting him with an image of Charles licking and slurping obscenely and that's what pushes him over the edge.

He comes with a shout, rubbing himself even faster for a few moments to drag out his orgasm, before he finally hauls himself over to sit on the toilet to catch his breath, ignoring the water that's still running from the shower head.

He sighs in satisfaction, and feels a wave of Charles' love and want from the bedroom.

 _Maybe we can do this again sometime,_ he sends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually debated with myself on whether it was rude of Charles to project an image of Erik in a wig, but finally decided that it's fine since it was something which was already in the deleted scenes.
> 
> Also, Erik refers to his anatomy as "cock", even though it's not biologically... accurate. Some transpeople do this to reduce dysphoria.


	5. Hank's Help

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Sean gets wings and Alex gets a suit to focus his laser beams, Erik gets something different.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Extremely short chapter, but I promise next chapter will make up for it.

Erik holds up the piece of stretchy material.

“What’s this?”

“It’s a transdermal patch”, Hank says. “Basically it helps you absorb testosterone through your skin instead of needing to inject yourself. Charles said that you needed it.”

“We can’t have you hobbling around if for some reason your leg is sore from the injections you’ve been taking,” Charles adds.

“Alright.” He says, taking the patch.

“Did you tell Hank anything?”, he projects to Charles.

“Only that you have a slight testosterone deficiency. It’s not unheard of, and Hank has already come up with inventions to help Alex and Sean with their abilities, so I don’t see why he can’t also make something to help you as well.

Thus satisfied, he allows Hank to guide him through a short demonstration of how to use the patch, and after a week of testing, he finds that he does not need to have a weekly injection anymore.


	6. Just Let Go

“You know, one thing I missed about those injections was the way you’d give me a thigh massage afterwards.”

“I can always give you other types of massages... if you want.”

It’s a clumsy non-attempt at a pick up line, but Erik doesn’t care.  He wants Charles in his bed. They’ve already been flirting and touching each other for weeks, and it’s a wonder that they’ve not even had any form of sex yet.

“Yes, but... you know.” He makes a vague gesture to his crotch and his chest. Charles has not seen him yet, and it’s one thing to be kind and accepting of someone’s differences, and entirely another to be sexually attracted to them.

“Erik, we’re mutants. Darwin can grow gills, for goodness’ sake! I don’t think any parts of your anatomy being slightly different is going to throw me off.”

“So this can be my secondary mutation then”, Erik laughs, while undoing the button on his trousers. He quickly pulls them off, revealing muscled and slightly hairy thighs and legs, nothing Charles hadn’t seen before during their road trip.

With his thumbs tucked under the waistband of his boxers, Erik fixes his gaze on Charles’ face to watch for his reaction, and pulls his boxers down.

“Oh.” Charles’ eyes widen and he looks up with his bright blue eyes to lock his gaze with Erik. “Er, it looks normal enough, I guess?”

“Charles, you can’t possibly think this looks like a normal penis.” Erik rolls his eyes.

“No it isn’t,” says Charles, shifting closer to press a kiss to Erik’s cheek. “But it’s still... groovy. Not to mention that it’s attached to the man who I’m hopelessly attracted to.”

With that, Charles leans back and pulls his cardigan off, while Erik tugs at his own turtleneck in a race to get naked as quickly as possible.

Finally, Charles stands by the bed wearing nothing but his boxers, and he feels himself already getting hard from want and anticipation.  
Erik just gives him a knowing smirk and helps him to pull his boxers down.

 

* * *

 

Once Erik stopped worrying about the possibility of Charles rejecting him, he started to become more sure of himself. It’s a gradual transition, but Charles finds that he likes the new, confident Erik more. Now Charles watches Erik prop himself against the headboard of the bed and spread his legs, and he unconsciously licks his lips.

“You don’t know what that does to me, do you?” Erik moans, and his legs fall open a little wider. 

The telepath chuckles and crawls closer to Erik, bringing his face ever closer to Erik’s crotch. Just to be a tease, he deliberately chooses to rest his head on Erik’s thigh, making sure that Erik feels the warmth of his exhale.

“Just do it, Charles. Don’t be a tease, “ he says, winding his fingers into Charles’ locks of hair, tugging a little.

“If you insist.” And with that, Charles gives Erik’s engorged clit a wet lick, and then leans in to start sucking on it. 

“Oh shit.” Erik tightens his grip on Charles’ hair, and tries not to jerk his hips up suddenly. He’s nowhere near big enough to fuck Charles’ mouth, but it’s enough for Charles to suck and lick and make those obscene noises while he is doing so. 

When he first saw it, Charles thought that Erik’s anatomy looked similar to that of a female’s -- except that the clit was a lot larger than usual. It’s amazing, Charles reflects, how a single hormone can cause such diverse changes in different parts of the human body. In some parts, it can cause fat to be redistributed, while in others it can cause muscle and tissue growth. And that’s probably why Erik’s clit has grown so much as compared to the other parts of his junk, it being homologous in nature to the shaft and glans of a regular penis. 

Although, now with his face in Erik’s crotch, he realizes that it’s not the only difference. Erik smells and tastes completely different than he expected -- his scent is muskier and even though it’s completely unlike any of his previous experiences with men or women, it’s bloody arousing in its own right.

After a while, he feels his jaw aching, and he pulls his head away and wipes at the stickiness smeared over his jaw. As he gazes down at Erik. he takes another moment to appreciate the look of Erik’s lean frame, wiry muscles, and ruggedly handsome looks, and leans down to share a long, filthy kiss with his new lover.

“It’s my turn,” says Erik, pushing at him and guiding him to lie down so that he can suck on his cock. Charles watches as Erik alternates between licking and sucking, and barely restrains himself from thrusting into Erik’s mouth.

Charles winds his fingers through Erik’s short hair and gives a warning tug. “I’m getting close.”

Erik snorts, the breath ticklish on Charles belly. Without even pausing in his rhythm, he simply replies, “ _ Go ahead and come. You can go back to sucking me off after you’re done.”  _

It’s only a few moments after that when Charles finally groans and comes, trembling slightly as Erik continues to lap at him and finally pulling away when he gets too sensitive.

“I believe I have a favour to repay,” Charles grins, before pouncing on Erik and pushing him back down on the bed.

* * *

"Erik."

"What?"

"I like your nipples. You have nice nipples."

Erik barks out a laugh. "Go to sleep, Charles."


End file.
